Periphrasis - раздел Образование, PART I INTRODUCTION Periphrasis Is A Device Which, According To Webster's Dictionary, Denotes Th...
Periphrasis is a device which, according to Webster's dictionary, denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way used to name a familiar object or phenomenon. Viewed from the angle of its linguistic nature, periphrasis represents the renaming of an object and as such may be considered along with a more general group of word designations replacing the direct names of their denotata. One and the same object may be identified in different ways and accordingly acquire different appelations. Thus, in different situations a certain person can be denoted, for instance, as either 'his benefactor', or 'this bore', or 'the narrator', or 'the wretched witness', etc. These names will be his only in a short fragment of the discourse, the criterion of their choice being furnished by the context. Such naming units may be called secondary, textually-confined designations and are generally composed of a word-combination.
This device has a long history. It was widely used in the Bible and in Homer's Iliad. As a poetic device it was very popular in Latin poetry (Virgil). Due to this influence it became an important feature of epic and descriptive poetry throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. It is due to this practice of re-naming things that periphrasis became one of the most favoured devices in the 17th and 18th centuries giving birth even to a special trend in literature in France and other countries called periphrastic. There exists in English a whole battery of phrases which are still used as periphrastic synonyms (see below) for ordinary denominations of things and phenomena.
V. N. Yartseva quotes S. K. Workman, an English literature scholar who states that "the most pervasive element in the^aureate style—and the most vitiating—was periphrasis." Prof. Yartseva states that the use of periphrasis in the 16th century was in the nature of embellishment, thus justifying the attribute aureate, and that periphrasis became a feature of a definite literary style.1
As a SD, periphrasis aims at pointing to one of the seemingly insignificant or barely noticeable features or properties of the given object, and
intensifies this property by naming the object by the property. Periphrasis makes the reader perceive the new appellation against the background of the one existing in the language code and the twofold simultaneous perception secures the stylistic effect. At the same time periphrasis, like simile, has a certain cognitive function inasmuch as it deepens our knowledge of the phenomenon described. The essence of the device is that it is decipherable only in context. If a periphrastic locution is understandable outside the context, it is not a stylistic device but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily decipherable periphrases are also called traditional, dictionary or language periphrases. The others are speech periphrases. Here are some examples of well-known dictionary periphrases (periphrastic synonyms):
the cap and gown (student body); a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex (women); my better half (my wife).
Most periphrastic synonyms are strongly associated with the sphere of their application and the epoch they were used in. Feudalism, for example, gave birth to a cluster of periphrastic synonyms of the word king, as: the leader of hosts; the giver of rings; the protector of earls; the victor lord. A play of swords meant 'a battle'; a battle-seat was 'a saddle'; a shield-bearer was 'a warrior'.
Traditional, language or dictionary periphrases and the words they stand for are synonyms by nature, the periphrasis being expressed by a word-combination. Periphrasis as a stylistic device is a new, genuine nomination of an object, a process which realizes the power of language to coin new names for objects by disclosing some quality of the object, even though it may be transitory, and making it alone represent the object, Here are some such stylistic periphrases:
"I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy,,niy son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never ^be replaced." (Dickens)
The object clause 'what can never be replaced' is a periphrasis for the word mother. The concept is easily understood by the reader within the given context, the latter being the only code which makes the deciphering of the phrase possible. This is sufficiently proved by a simple transformational operation, viz. taking the phrase out of its context. The meaning of 'what can never be replaced' used independently will bear no reference to the concept mother and may be interpreted in many ways. The periphrasis here expresses a very-individual idea of the concept.
Here is another stylistic periphrasis which the last phrase in the sentence deciphers:
"And Harold stands upon the place of skulls,
The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo," (Byron)
In the following:
"The hoarse, dull drum would sleep, And Man be happy yet." (Byron
the periphrasis can only be understood from a larger context, referring to the concept war. 'The hoarse, dull drum' is a metonymical periphrasis for war.
In some cases periphrasis is regarded as a demerit and should have no place in good, precise writing. This kind of periphrasis is generally called circumlocution. Thus Richard Altick states that one of the ways of obscuring truth "...is the use of circumlocutions and euphemisms." l
A round-about way of speaking about common things sometimes has an unnecessarily bombastic, pompous air and consequently is devoid of any aesthetic value. That is why periphrasis has gained the reputation of leading to redundancy of expression. Here is an example of the excessive use of periphrasis by such an outstanding classic English writer as Dickens:
"The lamp-lighter made his nightly failure in attempting to brighten up the street with gas (= lit the street lamps)."
In spite of the danger of being called "blasphemer", I venture to state that Dickens favoured redundant periphrastic expressions, seeing in them a powerful means to impose on his readers his own assessment of events and people. Here is another of his periphrases:
"But an addition to the little party now made its appearance (= another person came in)."
In characterizing the individual manner of a bad writer, V* G. Be-linsky says:
"One is particularly struck by the art he displays in the use of periphrasis: one and the same thought, simple and empty as, for example, 'wooden tables are made of wood', drags along in a string of long sentences, periods, tropes and figures of speech; he turns it around and around, extends it pages long and sprinkles it with punctuation marks. Everything is so flowery, everywhere there is such an abundance of epithets and imagery that the inexperienced reader marvels at these 'purple'patches' of jewelled prose,—and his fascination vanishes only when he puts a question to himself as to the content of the flamboyant article: for to his surprise in lieu of any content he finds mere woolly phrases and > fluffy self-conceit. This kind of writing often appears in the West, I particularly since the West began to rot; here in Russia where authorship has not yet become a habit, such phenomena are hardly possible”"2
The means supplied to enable the reader to decipher stylistic periphrasis are very subtle and have aesthetic value. In the following example the word of address is the key to the periphrasis:
"Papa, love. I am a mother. I have a child who will soon call Walter by the name by which I call you." (Dickens)
In some cases the author relies entijelj-on the erudition of the reader to decipher the periphrasis. Thus in the following example:
"Of his four sons, only two could be found sufficiently without the '<?' to go on making ploughs." (Galsworthy)
The letter 'e' in some proper names is considered an indirect indication of noble or supposed noble descent, cf. Moreton and Morion, Srnythe and Smith, Browne and Brown, Wilde (Oscar) and Wyld (Cecil). The italicized phrase is a roundabout way of stating that two of his sons were unaristocratic enough to work at making ploughs.
Genuine poetical periphrasis sometimes depicts the effect without mentioning the cause, gives particulars when having in view the general, points out one trait which will represent the whole. Stylistic periphrasis, it must be repeated, like almost all lexical stylistic means, must efficiently and intentionally introduce a dichotomy, in this case the dichotomy of two designations for one object or idea. If it fails to do so, there is no stylistic device, only a hackneyed phrase.
Periphrases, once original but now hackneyed, are often to be found in newspaper language. Mr. J. Donald Adams, who has written a number of articles and books on the use of English words in different contexts, says in one of his articles:
"We are all familiar with these examples of distended English, and I shall pause for only one, quoted by Theodore M. Bernstein, who as assistant managing editor of this newspaper acts as guardian over the English employed in its news columns. It appears in his recent book, "Watch Your Language", and reads "Improved financial support and less onerous work loads." Translation (by Clifton Daniel): "High pay and less work.1' l
Here is another example of a well-known, traditional periphrasis which has become established as a periphrastic synonym:
<rAfter only a short4* time of marriage, he wasn't prepared to offer advice to other youngsters intending to tie the knot... But, he said, he's looking forward to having a family." (from a newspaper article)
Here we have a periphrasis meaning to marry (to tie the knot). It has long been hackneyecLpnd may be called a cliche. The difference between a cliche and a periphrastic synonym lies in the degree to which the periphrasis has lost its vigour. In cliches we still sense the dichotomy of the original clash between the words forming a semantic unity; in periphrastic synonyms the clash is no longer felt unless the synonyms are subjected to etymological analysis.
In such collocations as 'I am seeing things', or 'I'm hearing bells' we hardly ever perceive the novelty of the phrases and are apt to understand them for what they stand for now in modern colloquial English, i.e. to have hallucinations. Therefore these phrases must be recognized as
periphrastic colloquial synonyms of the concepts delirium or hallucinations.
Stylistic periphrasis can also be divided into logical and / i g-u r a t i v e. Logical periphrasis is based on one of the inherent properties or perhaps a passing feature of the object described, as in instruments of destruction (Dickens) = 'pistols'; the most pardonable of human weaknesses (Dickens) —'love'; the object of his admiration (Dickens); that proportion of the population which... is yet able to read words of more than one syllable, and to read them without perceptible movement of the lips ^'half-literate'.
Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or on metonymy, the key-word of the collocation being the word used figuratively, as in 'the punctual servant of all work' (Dickens) --^'the sun'; 'in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes' (Sh.akespeare) ='in misfortune'; 'to tie the knot' ='to marry'.
There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy, on the one hand, and figurative periphrasis, on the other. It is the structural aspect of the periphrasis, which always presupposes a word-combination, that is the reason for the division.
Все темы данного раздела:
I. GENERAL NOTES ON STYLE AND Stylistics
Stylistics, sometimes called lingvo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It has now been more or less definitely outlined. It deals mainly with two interdependent
T^jire treated are the main distinctive features of individual style.
The treatment of the selected elements brings up the problem of the norm. The notion of the norm mainly refers to the literary language and always presupposes a recognized o
EXPRESSIVE MEANS (EM) AND STYLISTIC DEVICES (SD)
In linguistics there are different terms to den _by which utterances are foreground, i.e. made more conspicuous, more "effective and therefore imparting some additional information. They are c
GENERAL NOTES ON FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF LANGUAGE
We have defined the object,of linguo-stylistics as the study of the nature, functions and structure^ SDs and EMs, on the one hand, and the study of the functional styles, on the other. In section 2
The gap between the spoken and written varieties of language, wider
narrower at different periods in the development of the literary lan-
guage, will always remain apparent due to the difference in circumstances in which the two ar
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LITERARY (STANDARD) LANGUAGE
Up till now we have done little more than mention the literary (standard) language, which is one of the most important notions in stylistics and general linguistics. It is now necessary to elucida
MEANING FROM A STYLISTIC POINT OF VIEW
Stylistics is a domain where meaning assumes paramount importance.. This is so because the term 'meaning' is applied not only to words, word-combinations, sentences but also to the manner of expres
I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Like any linguistic issue the classification of the vocabulary here suggested is for purely stylistic purposes. This is important for the course in as much as some SDs are based on the interplay of
Common CoUo^uiaL Vocabulary
-Professionalisms i special Colloquial Vocabulary (non-Literary)
of the English language as being divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral
B) Poetic and Highly Literary Words
Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect. They
C) Archaic, Obsolescent and Obsolete Words
The word-stock of a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their meaning and sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words spring up and replace the old ones. Some wo
D) Barbarisms and Foreignisms
In the vocabulary of the English language there is a considerable layer of words called barbarisms. These are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English lang
A) Slang
There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term slang. Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English.
Much has been
B) Jargonisms
In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called jargonisms. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language an
C) Professionalisms
H Professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly desi
D) Dialectal words
This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English vocabulary and therefore its stylistic, functions can be more or less clearly defined. Dialectal words are
E) Vulgar words or vulgarisms
The term vulgarism, as used to single out a definite group of words of non-standard English, is rather misleading. The ambiguity of the term apparently proceeds from the etymology of the word. Vulg
GENERAL NOTES
The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense. There is another thing to be taken into account which, in a certain type of communication, viz. belles-lettres,
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc), by things (machines or taols, etc), by people (sighing, laughter, patter
Alliteration
Apt Alliteration's Artful Aid. Charles Churchill
Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in
A. INTENTIONAL MIXING OF THE STYLISTIC ASPECT OF WORDS
Heterogeneity of the component parts of the utterance is the basis for a stylistic device called b a th о s. Unrelated elements are brought together as if they denoted things equal in rank or belon
B. INTERACTION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEXICAL MEANING
Words in context, as has been pointed out, may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries, what we have called contextual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the
INTERACTION OF PRIMARY DICTIONARY AND CONTEXTUALLY IMPOSED MEANINGS
The interaction or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning (the meaning which is registered in the language code as an easily recognized sign for an abstract notion designating a certain
Metaphor
The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another. From the times of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, the term has been known
Metonymy
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on identification, but on some kind of association connecting
INTERACTION OF PRIMARY AND DERIVATIVE LOGICAL MEANINGS Stylistic Devices Based on Polysemantic Effect, Zeugma and Pun
As is known, the word is, of all language units, the most sensitive to change; its meaning gradually develops and as a result of this develop-"' ment new meanings appear alongside the primary
INTERACTION OF LOGICAL AND EMOTIVE MEANINGS
The general notions concerning emotiveness have been set out in part I, § 6—"Meaning from a Stylistic Point of View" (p. 57). However, some additional information is necessary for a bette
Interjections and Exclamatory Words
Interjections are words we use when we express our feelings ^strongly and which may be said to exist in language as coriyeritional symbols of human emotions/The role of interjections in creating em
The Epithet
From the strongest means of displaying the writer's or speaker's emotionaj. attitude to his communication, we now pass to a weaker but still forceful, means — the ep i th e t. .The epithet is subtl
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense, for example:
'low sk
Antonomasia
We have already pointed out the peculiarities of nominal meaning. The interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word is call-ed antonomasia. As in other stylistic devices based on the
C. INTENSIFICATION OF A CERTAIN FEATURE OF A THING OR PHENOMENON
In order to understand the linguistic nature of the SDs of this group it is necessary to clear 4up some problems, so far untouched, of d e f i n i-t i о п as a philosophical category, Any definitio
Euphemism
There is a variety of periphrasis which we shall call euphemistic.
Euphemism, as is known, is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acc
Hyperbole
Another SD which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object described is h у p e r b о I e. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a featur
D. PECULIAR USE OF SET EXPRESSIONS
In language studies there are two very clearly-marked tendencies that the student should never lose sight of, particularly when dealing with the problem of word-combination. They are 1) the analyti
The Cliche
A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. As Random House Dictionary has it, "a cliche ... has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long over-us
Proverbs and Sayings
Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. There are special dictionaries of proverbs and sayings. It is impossible to arrange proverbs and sayings in a form th
Epigrams
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. In other wor
Allusions
An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to "a fact of'everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The us
Decomposition of Set Phrases
Linguistic fusions are set phrases, the meaning of which is understood only from the combination as a whole, as to pull a person's leg or to have something at one's finger tips. The meaning of the
A. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Within the language-as-a-system there establish themselves certain [definite types of relations between words, word-combinations, sentences I and also between larger spans of utterances. The branch
B. PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE COMPOSITION OF SPANS OF UTTERANCE LARGER THAN THE SENTENCE
In recent years a new theory concerning the inner relations between context and form within the sentence has appeared. This theory, elaborated by S. Harris, N. Chomsky, M. Postal and others, is ca
Supra-Phrasal Units
The term supra-phrasal unit (SPU) is used to denote a larger unit than a sentence. It generally comprises a number of sentences interdependent structurally (usually by means of pronouns, connective
The Paragraph
A p a r a g r a p h is a graphical term used to name a group of sentences marked off by indentation at the beginning and a break in the line at the end. But this graphical term has come to mean a
C. COMPOSITIONAL PATTERNS OF SYNTACTICAL ARRANGEMENT
The structural syntactical aspect is sometimes regarded as the crucial issue in stylistic analysis, although the peculiarities of syntactical arrangement are not so conspicuous as the lexical and
Stylistic Inversion
W о r d-o r d e r is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it has peculiarities which have been caused by the concrete and specific way the language has developed. O. Jesperse
Detached Construction
a sentence by some specific
consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independ-
ent of Ще^ш^1У^^ parts of structures are called lie t ached. They seem_tCLjda
Parallel Construction
Parallel construction is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with earlier, viz. the SPU and the paragraph. The necessary condition in par
Repetition
It has already been pointed out that r ej^e ti t i о п is1 an expressive means of language used when the speaker is imder the stress of strong ""ей^зпг-Jt^^ as in the following "pas
Enumeration
E n и т е г a tion is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties, actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically
Suspense
S usp eji se i s a comppsitionjl device which consists in arranging the fffaFEe? of a commjuhTcation in such a way that the less important, "descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed af the b
Antithesis
In order to characterize a thing or phenomenon from a specific point of view, it may be necessary not to find points of resemblance or association between it and some other thing or phenomenon, bu
Asyndeton
Asyndeton, that is, connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign, becomes a stylistic device if there is a deliberate omission of the connective where it is g
Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words'by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part, as in:
The Gap- Sentence Link
There is a peculiar type of connection of sentences which for want of a term we shall call the g ap-s en fence link (GSL). The connection is not immediately apparent and it requires a certain ment
E. PARTICULAR USE OF COLLOQUIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
We have already pointed out some of the constructions which bear an imprint of emotion in the very arrangement of the words, whether they are neutral or stylistically coloured (see" p. 39). Su
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. We mentioned this .peculiar feature of the spoken language when we characterized its essential qualities and properti
Question-in-the-Narrative
Questions, being both structurally and semantically one of the types of sentences, are asked by one person and e'xpected to be answered by another. This is the main, and the most characteristic pro
Represented Speech
There are three ways of reproducing actual speech: a) repetition of the exact utterance as it was spoken (direct speech), b) conversion of the exact utterance into the relater'smode of expression
A) Uttered Represented Speech
Uttered represented speech demands that the tense should be switched from present to past and that the personal pronouns should be changed from 1st and 2nd person to 3rd person as in indirect speec
B) Unuttered or Inner Represented Speech
As has often been pointed out, language has two functions: the communicative and the expressive. The communicative function serves to convey one's thoughts, volitions, emotions and orders to the m
Rhetorical Questions
The rhetorical q и e^s t i о n Is a special syntactical stylistic j device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical mean-j ing of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the q
Litotes
Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
We have already mentioned the problem of what is known as / и n c-tional styles (FS) of language (see p. 32—35), but only to show that FSs should be distinguished from varieties of language. The ma
A. THE BELLES-LETTRES STYLE
We have already pointed out that the belles-lettres style is a generic term for three substyles in which the main principles and the most general properties of the style are materialized. These thr
LANGUAGE OF POETRY
The first substyle we shall consider is v e r s e. Its first differentiating property is its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances. The rhyt
Metre and Line
It is customary to begin the exposition of the theory of English versification with the statement that "...there is no established principle of English versification/'Eut this statement may a
The Stanza
We have defined rhythm as more or less regular alternations of similar units. Of the units of verse rhythm the following have been named: the syllable, the foot, the line and finally the stanza.
Free Verse and Accented Verse
Verse remains classical if it retains its metrical scheme.
There are, however, types of verse which are not classical. The one most popular is what is called "vers libre" which i
B) Lexical and Syntactical Features of Verse
The phonetic features of the language of poetry constitute what we have called its external aspect. These features immediately strike the ear and the eye and therefore are easily discernible; but t
EMOTIVE PROSE
The substyle of emotive prose has the same common features as have been pointed out for the belles-lettres style in general; but all these features are correlated differently in emotive prose. The
LANGUAGE OF THE DRAMA
The third subdivision of the belles-lettres style is the language of plays. The first thing to be said about the parameters of this variety of belles-lettres is that, unlike poetry, which, except f
B. PUBLICISTS STYLE
The publicist i*c s tу I e of language became discernible as a separate style in the middle of the 18th century. It also falls into three varieties, each having its own distinctive features. Unli
ORATORY AND SPEECHES
The oratorical s ty I e of language is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. It has already been pointed out that persuasion is the most obvious purpose of oratory.
"Oratoric
THE ESSAY
As a separate form of English literature the essay dates from the close of the 16th century. The name appears to have become common on the publication of Montaigne's "Essays", a literary
JOURNALISTIC ARTICLES
Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matter—whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the already mentioned features of publicis
C. NEWSPAPER STYLE
N e w s paper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms.
English newspaper writing dat
BRIEF NEWS ITEMS
The principal function of a b r i e f news i te т is to inform the reader. It states facts without giving explicit comments, and whatever evaluation there is in news paragraphs is for the most part
ADVERTISEMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Advertisements made their way into the British press at an early stage of its development, i.e. in the micHTth century. So they are almost as old as newspapers themselves.
The principal fu
THE HEADLINE
The headline (the title given to a news item or an article) is a dependent form of newspaper writing. It is in fact a part of a larger whole. The specific functional and linguistic traits of the he
THE EDITORIAL
The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the
D. SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE
The language of science is governed by the aim of the functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, devel
E. THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
There is one more style of language within the field of standard literary English which has become singled out, and that is the s ty le of official d о с и т е п t s, or "officialese", a
FINAL REMARKS
This brief outline of the most characteristic features of the five language styles and their variants will show that out of the number of features which are easily discernible in each of the styl
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